772 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



SAYS MUCH HONEY IS PUKE. 



EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN BEE JOCRNAI, 



TAKES EXCEPTIONS TO STORIES OF 



AnrLTERATION. 



That the bee-keepers as a class are opposed 

 to the adulteration of honey is averred by 

 George W. Yorl<, who, as editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, is in close touch with the 

 industry, llr. Y'orl< declares that there is 

 plenty of pure honey on sale in Chicago, and 

 takes exceptions to statements that have 

 been made by uieu who are supposed to 

 know something about pure food. In a let- 

 ter to The Tribune he says : 



" The bee-keepers have done all in their 

 power to aid not only the enactment but the 

 active enforcement of laws intended to pro- 

 hibit the adulteration of honey, or compelling 

 the mixers of thecombless article to label it 

 according to its exact ingredients. In an 

 interview Mr. Jones, the Pure Food Commis- 

 sioner of Illinois, is made to say : 



■•■Genuine honey has a brown coloring 

 around the cells. Glucose honey is perfectly 

 white. The purchaser can detect the fraud 

 by this simple rule.' 



"This would be important if it were true. 

 Unfortunately, or fortunately, there is no 

 truth in- it. First, much genuine honey is 

 perfectly white in appearance; and, second, 

 there is no glucose comb honey produced." 



The carload of honey referred to in the 

 first quotation from The Tribune, is ex- 

 tracted honey in tin cans. We looked it up 

 both at.the offices of the Pure Food Commis- 

 sion and the Western Brokerage Co., and 

 found that the chemist of the former had 

 discovered about 2.5 percent glucose in the 

 sample submitted to them by the Western 

 Brokerage Co., the latter firm having become 

 suspicious of the honey. After hearing the 

 result of th6 analysis, they reported it to the 

 California firm from whom they bought it 

 (in Oakland, we believe), and were holding 

 the honey subject to the orders of the Cali- 

 fornia firm, it being still in the car. We un- 

 derstand that the California firm declare it is 

 pure honey, and that their representative is 

 coming on to Chicago to prove it. He will 

 likely have a hard job of it — it he comes. 



We believe The Tribune, in publishing the 

 statements credited to Dr. Park and Commis- 

 sioner Jones, has done more damage to the 

 cause of pure honey than it can remedy in a 

 long, long time to come. Also, the-cartoon, 

 which pretends to illustrate how so-called 

 "comb honey" is manufactured, is another 

 unfortunate thing. Already, we hear that 

 Chicago grocers are feeling the ill effects of 

 the misleading reports and misstatements 

 published by The Tribune, and their honey 

 sales are diminishing accordingly. One dealer 

 said that the falling off in the sales of pure 

 honey would be at least "25 percent. While 

 all lovers of truth and right will appreciate 

 the slight correction which The Tribune pub- 

 lished a few days later, it could hardly have 

 done less, in justice to the honest people and 

 industry which it misrepresented, than to 

 have given in full the letter we wrote for pub- 

 lication. 



It is exceedingly unfortunate that news- 

 papers do not apply to those who are in a 

 position to know the facts concerning tech- 

 nical matters. With all the bee-keepers living 

 in ard around Chicago, and of such easy 

 access, there need never be anything mislead- 

 ing, or the least bit untrue, given in the pub- 

 lic press concerning bees or hone.v-produc- 

 tion. But it would not be quite so discourag- 

 ing, if, when an error has been published, 

 there would be shown some anxiety to have 

 it corrected, so that the injustice could be 

 righted as nearly as possiljle. 



Let us hope that more care may be exer- 

 cised hereafter on the part of those who 

 think they must write or speak on subjects 

 with which they are wholly unfamiliar. 



I The Buffalo Convention. | 



•^ At: 



1^ T> rt »^ i-» v»-*- f\€ ■tVta TynrknacirWinn'o ftf f Vi o TVi 1 T»t ^7_Qopnn H Annual ff^ 



^/(f^(f^ff^(fy(f^(t^(f^(f^(f^(f^^♦^^♦>^f^'^♦^?♦^^♦^?fM♦>(f^(fVfy(f^(f^ff^(f^s^ 



(Coatiuued from pa^e ~S'^.i I 



CRE.^TING A DEM.\ND FOR HONEY. 



" How can a demand for honey be 

 developed in a city -where at present 

 there is little or none consumed?" 



Mr. Niver — I have been for six 

 months now working- up a demand for 

 extracted honey in private families by 

 house-to-house canvassing, and I must 

 say that I am delig-hted with my suc- 

 cess, by going direct to the family, 

 sitting down and telling them how we 

 get it; showing them pictures of our 

 extractors, and taking along some 

 foundation, and so on. (ietting them 

 interested in the bee-talk, I can sell 

 them, perhaps, a pound, or ten pounds, 

 and in about a month I go around 

 again. I have found that there is a 

 demand worked up that way which 

 brings good results, and by going the 

 third or fourth time I find that the de- 

 mand is not diminished, but increased. 

 People do not know that honey is the 

 cheapest sauce that can be bought. 

 Everything is very high in the line of 

 sauce. Fruits are very high, and the 

 working people feel that very severely. 

 Now we are having boom times, and 

 the most prosperous times known to 

 this country, and the hardest times for 

 a man to support his family on his 

 wages that I have ever seen. By go- 

 ing direct to the people themselves, 

 and teaching them about extracted 

 honey, not comb — they look on comb 

 honey as a luxury beyond their pock- 

 ets. I have tried this method for six 

 months and I have two or three differ- 

 ent towns worked up. I find that the 

 trade is growing in most towns, and 

 in a little while we will get so that we 

 can get our bulk honey into the gro- 

 ceries. We can not do it now. You 

 can not sell honey in a bottle, with a 

 nice label on it, for 25 cents a pound. 

 You have to offer it at reasonable rates 

 by the pound, and then you can. sell it. 



Mr. Cook — How many of those lec- 

 tures could YOU give a day? 



Mr. Niver — I don't know; I talk sev- 

 eral hours a day. 



Mr. McEvoy — What size of samples 

 do you usually sell? 



Mr. Niver — My method is to take 

 along the honey in 10-pound cans. I 

 go into the house with a quart milk- 

 bottle and a teaspoon inside of it, and 

 ask for a small dish to put some honey 

 in; and I get them all in there eating 

 honey, and I make them use tlieir own 

 spoons. While they are doing this I 

 am explaining how we get it. I have 

 been selling 8 pounds for a dollar, for 

 fine white honey. The great majority 

 of people get paid once a month; if you 

 go just after pay-day you can sell a 

 great deal more than you can before. 



H. C. Ahlers — Would you kindly give 



us figures of what you could sell in a 

 day in that way? 



Mr. Niver — I have sold 300 pounds in 

 a day, and I have sold as low as 35 

 pounds in a day. 



Mr. Ahlers — I sold a thousand pounds 

 in two days, in 3 lb. Mason jars and 

 13-lb. pails ; ten cents a lb. straight. 

 If a groceryman wants my honey it is 

 worth 10 cents a lb. I sell to private 

 families for strictly cash, in Milwaukee 

 and vicinity. I weigh in the pail. The 

 pail costs 611 a hundred, and I weigh 

 the pail in. This gives me about 9'z 

 to 10 cents for the pail. I lose about 

 1 '2 cents on the pail. I sell the honey 

 in the Mason jars without the jar. I 

 go to private families and keep a rec- 

 ord of them. I know where I am go- 

 ing when I start. I take a thousand 

 pounds along, and make the trip in two 

 days. I sold 8,000 pounds in six trips, 

 2,000 pounds around home. I sold my 

 own crop of 6,000 pounds, gathered 

 from 37 colonies, and bought 2,000 lbs. 

 Mr. Howe — I feel sorry for a bee- 

 keeper who produces honey and can't 

 sell it. I can't produce enough to fill 

 my orders. 



J. H. Fuller— For the benefit of 

 comb-honey men, I wish to say a word 

 or two. I retail comb honey, and I re- 

 tail from 100 to 300 lbs. a day in small 

 towns in Cattaraugus County. I take 

 it from house to house, the same as 

 these gentlemen retail their extracted 

 honey. I am getting 15 cents a lb. for 

 No. 1 honey, and for dark honey all the 

 way from 8 to 10 and 12 cents, accord- 

 ing to the ciuality. I go on Tuesdays. 

 Our pay-day is Monday, and I want to 

 go when they have money. 



W. L. Coggshall — The wholesale 

 price is retail ; no trouble to sell that 

 way. 



Mr. Niver — I have heard a good deal 

 said on what package we shall put our 

 honey in, but I have got so that I be- 

 lieve I don't want any package at all. 

 I prefer every time to have the lady 

 produce her own package. She is sure 

 it is clean, then. 



Mr. Ahlers —Well, people offer me a 

 package and they offer me butter- 

 crocks. I live about 28 miles from 

 Milwaukee. I would have to haul their 

 butter-crocks. I allow them 10 cents 

 for the pail. 



Mr. Tyrrell — I would like to ask Mr. 

 Niver what argument he uses to an- 

 swer the question why extracted honey 

 is cheaper than comb honey. 



Mr. Niver — By showing the picture 

 of the extractor and telling them that 

 the bees build the comb only once, and 

 we put it back and they fill it up again. 

 Mr. McEvoy — I think if every State 

 in the union, and Canada, had some 

 one going around in that way, talking 

 to people, it would be a good thing. 



